Louisiana Releases Long-Term Plan to Save Coastline

Louisiana Releases Long-Term Plan to Save Coastline

The State of Louisiana&euro;™s Office
of Coastal Protection and Restoration has released a Master
Plan for protecting and restoring the
state&euro;™s fragile and shrinking
coastline. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has extensive
coverage of the new coastal blueprint, starting with this
January 12 story
(&euro;&oelig;
Louisiana coastal restoration 50-year blueprint
released,&euro; by Mark Schleifstein). The
draft plan itself, titled
&euro;&oelig;
Louisiana&euro;™s Comprehensive Master
Plan for a Sustainable Coast,&euro; can be
downloaded in hi-res and lo-res versions, or viewed in a Flash
viewer, at the state&euro;™s
www.coastalmasterplan.louisiana.gov website.
The plan&euro;™s scope is ambitious,
the Times-Picayune reports:
&euro;&oelig;The state has lost 1,883 square
miles of land during the past 80 years, an area three-quarters
the size of Delaware, and authority Chairman Garret Graves said
it is impossible to return the
state&euro;™s coastline to its 1930s
condition. Even having a coastline in 2061 that resembles the
current one might be impossible, he said. But if the projects
outlined in the plan work, Louisiana would see more land gained
than lost by 2042, with that gain averaging about 2.5 square
miles a year by 2061. By then, the projects would have built
859 square miles of new land, although much of the gain will be
offset by erosion elsewhere.&euro;
The plan includes a number of extensive levee projects, some
intended to protect against a 100-year storm event, and some
aimed at protecting against a higher
&euro;&oelig;500-year&euro; storm
flood. Also included in the plan are major island and wetland
restoration projects aimed at rebuilding lost land. This effort
would involve dredging and depositing sand from the Gulf, as
well as redirecting rivers to allow natural sediment flow into
currently submerged areas.
The plan has drawn support from many quarters. The editors
of the Baton Rouge Advocate called the blueprint
&euro;&oelig;a step in the right
direction&euro;
(&euro;&oelig;
Our Views: Get behind Louisiana coastal
plan&euro;). But public meetings revealed the
diversity of opinions on the subject, the Huffington Post
reported
(&euro;&oelig;
Views Collide At Meeting On Louisiana's Coastal
Plan,&euro; by Susan Buchanan):
&euro;&oelig;A New Orleans open house held by
Louisiana's coastal restoration authority last week on a draft
of the state's 2012 Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast drew
mixed, earnest and sometimes vehement comments. Those living
near the Gulf, where homes and entire communities have washed
away, worried that the plan doesn't kick in fast enough.
Fisheries proponents warned that diverting Mississippi River
water and sediment to build marsh will kill oysters, shrimp and
trout. But for their part, national organizations concerned
about the coast tend to favor the plan as a step in the right
direction and one that will procure
funds.&euro;
Some ecologists are dubious about the whole concept of using
man&euro;™s engineering to mitigate
changes driven by nature. The Associated Press reported one
such critic&euro;™s comment
(&euro;&oelig;
Bold plan proposed to save coastal
Louisiana,&euro; by Cain Burdeau):
&euro;&oelig;Edward P. Richards is a science
and public health law professor at Louisiana State University
studying the state's coastal policies. He said any plan that
proposes to save most of coastal Louisiana puts people in
harm's way. The government encouraging people to continue
living along the coast will result in new disasters when the
next major hurricane strikes, he contends.&euro;
Said Richards: "We have threats that are so politically
unpalatable to deal with that we create mythologies to reassure
the public that we are properly managing those threats. What
should be seriously debated is whether there should be any
levees built anywhere or whether we should let the coast
naturally shrink and move inland."
But the framers of the new plan apparently believe that
their proposal could be improved by expanding it.
&euro;&oelig;The budget we used for the plan,
$50 billion, reflected existing and potential funding
sources,&euro; they wrote, but they added:
&euro;&oelig;With all the good this plan could
achieve, we won&euro;™t be able to
completely compensate for the land loss that will occur over
the next 50 years.&euro; Accordingly, the team
sketched out a rough idea of what could be done with more money
(see map below). &euro;&oelig;Our analysis
showed that additional funds would increase our ability to
protect at risk communities and build coastal
land,&euro; the report says.
&euro;&oelig;For example, by 2061 a budget of
$100 billion would allow us to achieve a net gain of up to 17
square miles of land per year; building between 934 and 1148
square miles of land.&euro;